SC 343 Gender Issues and Physical Culture: Does Sex Matter Gender Issues in Physical Education

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SC 343 Gender Issues and Physical CultureDoes
Sex Matter ? Gender Issues in Physical Education

• Gary Stidder
• Chelsea School
• University of Brighton

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Learning Outcomes

• Identify key gender issues involved in PE
  pedagogy and practice related to equality of
  opportunity, social inclusion, curriculum
  policies, grouping practices and mixed sex
  teaching practices
• Discuss and analyse whether sex matters?in PE
• Identify the importance of researching gender
  issues in PE

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Background

• 1982 - 1986 BEd Degree in PE, Brunel University
• 1986 - 1990 Secondary school PE teacher, UK
• 1990 - 1991 Fulbright Scholarship,Lionville
  Junior High School, Downingtown, PA
• 1991 Assistant Head of Faculty, UK
• 1996 MA research Gender grouping in PE
• 1999 PhD research Education policy and the
  impact on girls PE in England USA

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Gender Issues in PE

• PE has a long history associated with gendered
  patterns of organisation manifested within
  teacher training
• The provision of PE for girls is usually the
  responsibility of female staff. Provision of PE
  for boys is usually the responsibility of male
  staff
• In some schools different activities are included
  in the PE curriculum for girls as compared to
  boys.
• The revised NCPE has prompted questions as to
  whether this is fair or can be justified on
  educational grounds. Do you agree?

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Gender Issues in PE

• Boys experiences of games typically involves them
  participating and becoming skilled in the major
  sports of soccer, cricket and rugby, whilst girls
  are more likely to experience netball, hockey and
  rounders.
• Is there equal access to particular activities in
  the secondary school curriculum?
• Should teachers consider adopting mixed or single
  sex groupings in the interests of equal
  opportunities in PE?

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3 Principles of Inclusion

• 1. Setting suitable learning challenges
• 2. Responding to pupils diverse learning needs
• 3. Overcoming potential barriers to learning and
  assessment for individuals and groups of pupils
  (NCPE 2000 p 28)
• Are some of the traditions and structures in PE
  conducive to INCLUSIVE practice in PE?

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PE, Gender Social Inclusion

• Teachers should create effective learning
  environments in which
• Stereotypical views are challenged and pupils
  learn to appreciate and view positively
  differences in others, whether arising from race,
  gender, ability or disability
• (DfEE QCA 1999 p 29)

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UK National Curriculum for PE (2000)

• Teaching approaches that include equality of
  opportunity include
• Ensuring that boys and girls participate in the
  same curriculum
• Taking account of the interests and concerns of
  boys and girls by using a range of activities and
  contexts for work
• Avoid gender stereotyping when organising pupils
  into groups, assigning them to activities, or
  arranging access to equipment
• (DfEE QCA 1999 p 30)

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Gender Agendas What do we know?

• The latest research findings differ little from
  the information gathered in the 1970s 1980s.
• Traditional forms of practice in PE have proved
  remarkably resilient to change
• There is wide acknowledgement in PE that it is
  the social construction of gender that is
  important NOT biological differences (Scraton
  1992)
• Many everyday practices in PE departments
  reinforce and reproduce gender inequalities and
  stereotypical ideas about femininity and
  masculinity (Flintoff 1996) - What examples can
  you think of?

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Gender Agendas What do we know?

• Many mature women speak of their school
  experiences and Physical Education with deep
  dislike, as disabling experiences that left them
  feeling alienated from physical activity and
  their bodies. (Wright 1996 p77)
• The choice of activities within secondary school
  PE programmes is a key source of discontentment
  for many girls.(Flintoff Scraton 2001)
• Girls are often assumed to be more suited to
  netball, for example, simply because they are
  girls and not because they are necessarily better
  than boys. (Cockburn 2001)

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Shaping up to Womanhood (Scraton 1992)

• PE staff perceive girls to be more poised,
  controlled and quieter.
• Boys were perceived to be louder, more daring,
  stronger and faster.
• Such perceptions were often used to justify
  different choices of content and teaching
  approaches for girls compared to boys.
• The restrictive rules of many girls sports
  encourage young women to learn that their bodies
  need protecting and that they must remain
  enclosed within personal space (Scraton 1992
  p54)

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Nike/YST Study 1999

• Providing, as some schools did, traditional
  male activities for girls and female
  activities for boys may be one step in the right
  direction. However, such initiatives need to be
  accompanied by an explicitly anti-sexist
  pedagogy. While some male and female PE teachers
  remain hostile to anything but traditional forms
  of PE, such radical ambitions may remain some
  distance from being realised (Nike/YST Girls in
  Sport Study p 59)

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Nike/YST Study 1999

• Traditional forms of practice in PE is part of
  the problem
• PE is a means of developing and reinforcing
  dominant forms of femininity and masculinity
• Teachers are central players in change - support
  from colleagues is essential for success
• Shared understanding of issues and problems
• Traditional kit and policy on showering
• Some male PE teachers attitudes are counter
  productive to promoting girl-friendly
• The PE curriculum requires attention and
  redefining in meeting the needs and interests of
  young people today

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Williams Bedward (2001)

• Many pupils are extremely critical of the
  gender-segregated PE curriculum they have
  experienced in their secondary schools,
  describing it as sexist
• Girls felt it was unfair that they were denied
  access to a range of activities, including
  football, which had been defined within their PE
  lessons as male
• As a potential curriculum activity it (football)
  is clearly far more popular for girls than
  TEACHERS either realise or are prepared to accept
• Dissatisfaction was frequently expressed by girls
  with the schools definition of appropriate
  female activities

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Why Mixed Sex PE?

• All other subjects taught in mixed groups
• Boys and girls benefit by being taught by male
  and female staff equally
• Integration is better than segregation
• Improves standards of behaviour
• Boys less likely to view girls as non-athletes
• Institutional segregation is a form of
  educational apartheid
• Coeducational PE supports the comprehensive ethos
  in our education system

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Mixed Sex PE Gender Inclusive?

• Girls are less actively involved
• Boys harass and ridicule girls both verbally and
  physically
• It supports the Us versus Them and our events
  and their events attitude
• Boys dominate space and teacher attention
• It is potentially dangerous
• Does not account for cultural differences
• In mixed team games girls become non assertive,
  give up and hang back
• Girls become the negative reference group
• An invitation for girls to participate in boys PE

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Why Single Sex PE?

• Combat higher drop out rates and resistance of
  girls to school PE
• Participation rates increase
• Pupils are less embarrassed
• Standards of behaviour is better
• Girls are less inhibited
• Greater levels of involvement and effort
• Boys and girls are more enthusiastic
• Less differentiation has to take place
• Girls less likely to be marginalised in team
  games
• Girls less likely to experience performance
  anxiety particularly when demonstrating

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Single Sex PE Gender Inclusive?

• Less curriculum choice
• Boys are disadvantaged in terms of facilities.
  Boys are often expected to use outdoor facilities
  in poor weather whilst girls follow a alternative
  programme indoors
• Conveys hidden messages to children about the
  suitability of gender as a means of
  differentiating
• Actively contributes to overall perceptions of
  masculinity and femininity
• Confirms deep rooted assumptions about gender
• Men and women will continue to teach same-sex
  classes

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What about the boys?

• Boys-only PE classes become sites where hegemonic
  forms of (heterosexual) masculinity are valued.
• There are expectations of boys to demonstrate and
  exhibit dominant forms of masculine behaviour
  (win at all costs, going into battle, aggressive,
  courageous, determined, tough)
• Boys who do not fit in, are not skilled or have
  little liking for contact sports can be
  marginalised or bullied.
• Forms of solidarity develop between most boys and
  their male teachers around common experiences in
  sport, usually cricket or football.
• Single sex boys PE classes can promote
  homophobic/sexist behaviour and is often used to
  insult and humiliate (nancy, pansy, poof, fag,
  queer, big girls blouse, my sister can throw
  further).

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Wright (1996) The construction of
complementarity in Physical Education (Gender
Education, 8, 1, p 61 - 79

• The male PE teacher provided opportunities and
  encouraged boys to be physically aggressive
  through class bashing or rumbles (in single
  sex PE lessons).
• Pain became part of the experience of being male
  in all boys PE classes (Sounds familiar ????)
• Not all boys were comfortable with a masculinity
  that expected them to be aggressive and tough in
  the face of pain
• For some boys, including girls in PE lessons was
  one way of militating against these practices and
  attitudes
• The usual punch ups were less likely to happen
  (in mixed sex PE lessons) and there would be a
  friendly atmosphere

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Curriculum Change Innovation in PE

• Consultation with pupils, parents and members of
  staff.
• Other people matter - Give them a voice
• Opportunities for reflection by students and
  teachers as to how gender is constructed in and
  through PE, sport, the print and electronic media
  (Wright 1999 p 194)
• If this inclusive curriculum is to become a
  reality in PE, there is a need for a clearer
  recognition by teachers of the different ways in
  which female pupils position themselves both in
  relation to gender and culture. This implies a
  curriculum which offers greater flexibility and
  choice prior to key stage 4, set in a learning
  context which recognises multiple definitions of
  physical and leisure activity
• (Williams Bedward 2001 p 64)

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Does Sex Matter?

• Social construction of gender and the role of
  physical activities in the process
• The sex of the individual is not problem
• The issue is socio-cultural
• It is how we construct femininity and masculinity
• Efforts need to focus on Girls, Boys, Men Women
• Challenge stereotypical notions of femininity
  masculinity within physical activities
• Anti-Sexist pedagogy in PE that will change
  deeply held sexist beliefs and values

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Does Sex Matter? The need for research

• Equal opportunity access
• Curriculum content
• Grouping policy
• Sex-role socialisation
• PE Department structure
• Teachers expectations attitudes
• Recruitment and selection of staff
• Extra-curricular provision
• Pupils activity choices and preferences

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Time to Reflect

• Consider the points raised in the lecture and
  reflect upon your own experiences of PE at
  secondary school
• Were you taught PE in mixed sex or single sex
  groups or both?
• By whom were you taught PE? Male/Female/Both?
• Did you experience equal opportunity and access
  to the PE curriculum?

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Questions?

• Are single sex PE classes and the retention of a
  gender-differentiated PE curriculum appropriate
  to young people today?
• How can PE respond to the NCPE statutory
  statement for social inclusion specifically
  related to gender?
• Do you consider the provision of different and
  separate team games for boys and girls highly
  questionable professional practice in meeting the
  UK governments aims for social inclusion?
• Is there a need for change ? What are the
  implications ?
• What type of research can inform our
  understanding of the influence of gender with
  respect to PE in schools?
• What is your vision of PE for the year 2010 and
  what might the PE curriculum look like?

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Useful References

• Green K Scraton S (1998) Gender, Coeducation
  and Physical Education A Brief Review, in Green
  K Hardman (1998) Physical Education A Reader
  Aachen, Meyer Meyer, p291 - 313
• Wright J (1999) Changing Gendered Practices in
  Physical Education Working with Teachers,
  European Physical Education Review, (5), 3, p 181
  - 197
• Stidder G (2000), Does Sex Matter? Pupil
  Perceptions of Physical Education in Mixed and
  Single Sex Secondary Schools, Parts 1 2, The
  British Journal of Teaching PE, (31), 3, p40 -
  43, 4, p46 - 48
• Cockburn C (2001) Year 9 Girls and Physical
  Education A Survey of Pupil Perceptions, The
  Bulletin of PE, (37), 1, p 5 - 24
• Williams A Bedward J (2001) Gender, Culture
  and the Generation Gap Student and Teacher
  Perceptions of Aspects of National Curriculum
  Physical Education, Sport, Education Society,
  (6), 1, p 53 - 66
• Flintoff A Scraton S (2001) Stepping into
  Active Leisure? Young Womens Perceptions of
  Active Lifestyles and Their Experiences of School
  Physical Education, Sport, Education Society,
  (6), 1, p 5 - 21
• Penney D (2002) Equality, Equity and Inclusion
  in Physical Education and School Sport in Laker
  A (Ed) (2002) The Sociology of Sport and
  Physical Education An Introductory Reader,
  London, Routledge, p110 - 128